>>ALAN: So in this tutorial, we're gonna start to learn Photoshop.
Now, before we dive into the program,
we have to pull back
and actually look at the program and its separate components.
Now Photoshop, like every Adobe program, is built in what's called panels.
Now these panels are really important,
because if we don't know what they do,
we're never gonna know to look there or to click on the items inside of them.
These panels are also fully modular, which means we can
reorganize the entire program to our liking.
But this can also cause some frustration if we accidentally move things,
but don't know how to change them.
Now don't be like me,
when I first started learning Photoshop, or any of the Adobe programs,
I jumped straight in to tutorials that were having me make cool stuff.
Now by the end of those tutorials I had made some cool stuff, but I still
had no idea how the program was actually working.
So we want be patient.
Learn the program, learn the basic interface of the program,
so that way we can move forward intelligently.
So let's jump into Photoshop and I'll introduce you to what we're actually looking at.
So once you get Photoshop open, you are faced with the welcome screen.
Now for you guys you may have a different interface here if it's the first time you've opened Photoshop.
But, regardless, this is a screen where you can create a new piece of artwork or open an existing one.
And once you start creating content in Photoshop
it will start to stack up here as a "recents" file,
but for now we don't have any recents because we haven't created anything.
Let's go ahead and hit create new to get started.
When you hit create new, you are faced with the presets window
or the new document window with a whole list of presets.
Now these are all the recent ones that I've used,
but notice up here at the top we have different categories depending on
the medium that you're working in.
So if you're working with photos here's some
different photo - some common photo - presets.
if you're working in print here's some common print presets.
And notice too how it is changing the preset details over here to the right.
So if we're working in print, as we learned from the lecture,
we're going to be working in a
resolution of 300 pixels per inch,
working in an RGB or a CMYK color mode over here.
Now for this class we're going to be working in the web preset tab
because most everything that we as digital artists are going to create will
end up on the web at some point in time.
And, we are going to be using the web large preset.
The web large preset is 1920 by 1080 pixels. That is full HD and
probably the resolution of most of your monitors.
The resolution here is 72 pixels per inch, which is the resolution for screen,
and in RGB color mode, because we're working four screens,
and all screens function in the RGB color mode.
The background contents being white is great and we don't have to adjust any of
our color profiles.
Now one important thing to notice is that we are working
in pixels, not inches.
If I go back to the print preset you'll notice we're now working in inches.
This can be confusing for first-time users.
The issue here, though, is if we're working in web, and we accidentally have this web large preset set to inches..
And we start to type in 1920 by 1080 thinking that's the preset,
we're working in 1,920 inches. This is a very large artboard.
Your computer will start to cry tears because you are making it work very hard to function with an artboard that size.
So we really want to make sure that we're working in pixels, not inches,
you can see that's one hundred and thirty eight thousand pixels wide.
So 1920 by 1080 pixels - 72 pixels per inch.
So the web large preset is great by default, let's just go ahead and hit create.
And when you hit create, Photoshop is gonna spring to life
with a whole bunch of different features.
Now for this tutorial I really just want to show you guys
each of the panels that we see in front of us, what they are called,
and how we utilize them.
I'm not going to go into the specifics in this tutorial -
that's what the the rest of the class is for,
but let's just talk about the basic layout.
Now at the very top left of the program we see what's called the menu bar.
File, edit, image, layer and etc...
The menu bar exists for every program that we've ever used,
and it's how we interface with the program and the operating system.
So if we wanted to make a new artboard or open an existing
project or close an existing project, save our files,
we would come under file in the menu bar.
Edit, image, layer... we're gonna get to each and every one of these
throughout the class.
Just know that when I say go up to the menu bar, you should
instantly glance to the very top left of your screen.
Now right beneath this, we have something called the option bar.
So a menu bar very top, right beneath it the option bar.
Now the option bar is fluid, meaning it changes depending on what
tool you have selected.
Our tool bar is over here to the far left.
And here you see every tool available to us inside of Photoshop.
There aren't any extra tools that the pros use that we don't have access to.
Every tool in Photoshop exists right here in front of us.
Now notice that as we click on different tools, the option bar is changing.
It's because the option bar gives us options for our different tools.
Imagine if I gave you guys a drill.
Odds are, you would have to change out the drill bit,
you might have to change the battery,
you may have to reverse the direction the drill bit is moving.
You have to change the options on the drill to have it suit your needs.
The same thing is true with any tools inside of Photoshop.
When we select a tool, by default, it may not be what we need it to be.
And so we can go up to the option bar then, and explore the different options for that tool.
So we have the menu bar at the very top, the option bar right below it,
which is tied to the toolbar over here to the very left.
Now notice every single tool in the
toolbar has a tiny little white arrow in the bottom right corner.
If you click and hold any tool or simply right-click it, you will see the subset of tools beneath it.
Every tool has a subset of tools beneath it.
Let's now jump into our main artboard.
Photoshop works in what are called artboards.
They used to call them documents, and in some windows they still do,
but they're called artboards now, it kind of shares artboards with Illustrator.
When we created this brand new web large preset,
we have a tab opened up here with our "Untitled 1" project.
Every time we open a brand new project, and here I'll do this from just demoing,
File, New,
I'll create a brand new web large preset again.
It created a brand new project tab up here called "Untitled 2."
And we can change between these two projects simultaneously.
We could have as many projects opened up in Photoshop as we want.
We can reorganize these tabs by simply clicking and dragging them,
or we can close a project by hitting the X.
Now this white space here is our actual artboard.
Anything we want to create needs to exist within the boundaries of this white background.
Now I'm going to zoom out (and I haven't taught you how to zoom yet,
but I just want to make a point)
If I zoom out, and we can zoom out very far,
this void area, this grey void,
think of this as our desk,
maybe the desk in front of you.
And this artboard right here is the piece of paper on our desk.
Now unless you have toddlers at home, you
guys know that when you want to draw something to create something it needs to
exist on the paper, not on the desk.
So as we go to create things inside of Photoshop,
we're gonna make sure that everything we do exists on this white space.
Now let's jump over here to the far right.
The color and swatches panels I'll talk about in a little bit.
The properties and adjustment panels I will talk about in a little bit.
I want to come down here, though, to our "Layers" panel.
Now layers are the heart and soul of Photoshop.
If we don't understand layers, we don't understand Photoshop.
And in the next tutorial, I cover layers in depth.
So it's important for us to really understand and get a grasp on layers.
Notice, though, that we have Layer 1 created.
Layer 1 is transparent as noted by the checkerboard background.
And it exists inside of our artboard.
We can create brand-new layers and we can have as many layers as we want.
I think Photoshop maxes out close to 1 million layers, which is unheard of.
So the layers panel is gonna be very important.
Everything we do will have to consult the layers panel first.
So that's the layout of Photoshop,
but before I have you guys go to the next tutorial where I really break down layers,
I want to address a common issue that happens when we open up the Adobe programs.
Because Photoshop is made up of panels,
and we can see these panel lines all over the place,
all of these panels are completely adjustable -
meaning we can undock and redock
or move around these different panels
to maybe spread out across two monitors
or just reorganize for our specific workflow.
But it's not uncommon as you get started in Photoshop to accidentally.. "Oops.."
drag something out.
And you accidentally start to undock all these panels,
and all of a sudden now you start to panic,
because you're undocking things and you don't know what to do next
so your knee-jerk reaction (as it was mine
when I first started to learn Photoshop)
is to hit the little X on the panel here
because clearly if I hit the X it's gonna snap back to where it was.
Unfortunately not true.. it actually just disappears into the ether.
So as I hit X on all of these, notice that my workspace is not resetting in fact it's getting worse.
And as I drag all of these different things and close them all out,
I've effectively ruined Photoshop.
And if you're like me when I first started,
I'm like, "Well I think I'll just close the program because I clearly broke it."
Unfortunately though, Photoshop remembers your last workspace.
So if you were to close this right now and then reopen it,
it would look just like you left it.
So I, when I first started learning, panicked.
This is really common - in fact some of
you by the time you even got to this point in the tutorial, you probably
undocked a panel.
I want to help you guys resolve this.
We cannot be afraid of our interface.
If we're afraid of Photoshop, we're not going to be able to learn it very well.
I'm pretty confident Photoshop can sense fear, kind of like a shark.
Go up to a window in the menu bar for me.
Under window you see a whole list of things.
What are these?
This is a list of every panel you could have open in Photoshop..
Every panel.
So now all you have to do is reopen all the panels that you closed.
You memorized those, right?
No, of course not.
So how do we know which ones to open?
Well, we definitely know we closed our layers panel - we know that for sure.
Hit "Layers."
Oh great.. it doesn't even re-dock it to where it belongs.
So even if I knew exactly which panels to reopen, there's my toolbar,
it reopens exactly where I dragged it out.
Still not helpful.
Go up to "window" in the menu bar.
I'm going to show you guys how to do a hard reset.
Go down to "workspace," it's a side menu,
and go down to "reset essentials."
we're working in what's called the
essentials workspace - it's the default layout of Photoshop.
So if we reset essentials... "Ah."
It completely defaults to what it was when we first opened it.
Now mine looks probably a lot more like yours now with this "Learn Photoshop" panel,"
and the "Libraries" panel where you can see some of the random drawings
and our work that I've been working on.
The "Libraries Panel" is where your Creative Cloud files exist.
These are your cloud-based files you can work with.
And then you have your "Learn Photoshop" panel up top.
We don't need these.
I'm going to go ahead and show you
how to close a panel - not undock it.
if we come over here to the hamburger icon,
it's the three stacked lines next to every panel,
(that's Adobe's word by the way, not mine)
We can hit "close" and we close this tab.
Same thing with libraries..
Hit the hamburger icon,
come down to "close,"
and now we're at default Photoshop again.
If, at any point in time during a project, you don't know where a certain panel went,
Don't panic. Don't panic.
Go to "Window," "Workspace," "Reset Essentials."
And everything is going to come back to where you need it.
So hopefully that stops you guys from panicking when you accidentally close things out.
And I can almost guarantee you will accidentally close things out.
Now if you did want to rearrange your panels in Photoshop,
if you have two monitors at home or you just don't like where something is situated,
let me show you how to move a panel.
Let's say I wanted my layers panel to be over here
so I had maybe a longer space to work with.
If I drag my layer panel out just like I did when I thought I ruined it..
If I grab the top of this panel, notice
when I drag it to any of these lines, a blue glowing line appears.
Wherever you see a blue glowing line, that's where you can re-dock and snap that panel.
I always happen to like my layers panel right here to the side because it just
gives me a much longer space if I have a lot of layers in my project.
And now I have a re-docked layers panel that's not sitting there floating around.
Now I'm always going to work from the default essentials workspace.
I'm never going to work in a custom workspace.
So if you guys want to create your own custom workspaces you absolutely can.
Just know that I will always be working from the default essentials.
Now if you reorganize Photoshop to your liking, you can always go under workspace.
You can actually then create a new workspace that's customized to you.
So say you have two monitors at home and you spread the program out
across your two monitors.
If you hit "new workspace," you can save this as say "dual monitor layout."
And then every time you work in Photoshop you can open up your existing workspace
and you don't have to remake it every time.
But again, we're gonna be working in the default essentials workspace.
So to recap,
we have our menu bar up top,
we have our option bar below that is tied to our toolbar over here to the left,
we have our project tab opened up here almost like a web browser tab,
our artboard space where we will be creating,
and over here to the right we have a lot of panels that we'll get to throughout the class.
But the important one to note right now is the "Layers" panel.
Now Photoshop is really exciting, and it may seem daunting at first.
But, man, there is just so much stuff that we can do with this program.
It's the exact same program that all the professionals out there are using.
There's no additional add-ons or packages that we haven't paid for yet that make it robust.
It already is robust.
And so this starts our journey of learning this incredible program.
I hope you're excited, and I'll see you in the next tutorial.